Some readers will recall I had the hair-brained idea of coming up with fifty things to do in this year of being fifty... well the truth is I just could not think of fifty things that I really wanted to do, and I couldn't see the point of adding loads of things just to make up the numbers.  So here, in no particular order, are the things I have come up with...

• Go to the cinema once a month
• Climb Snowdon
• Climb Scafell
• Have afternoon tea at Betty's Harrogate
• Read a leisure book a month
• Fly a kite on a beach or headland (ht Tim Presswood)
• As a concession to all things girlie, the only one I plan to make, have a professional manicure (I have an event in mind for which this might be appropriate)
• Write and deliver a conference paper at the 'Baptist Doing Theology' conference
• Learn to play, properly, at least one piano work from among the stuff I already have
• Raise funds for a local charity in Glasgow which was founded by The Gathering Place and it's 'mother church'
• Help my kid brother mark his fiftieth next autumn!

The plan is, by writing them down I am more likely to do them, as I have some sort of accountability.

Actually I could make fifty different cupcake designs... ;-)

So today is the first 'normal' day back in the office after the Christmas period.  I have put away the majority of the stuff that has lain on chairs and surfaces in the vestry since I got it out somewhere in Advent.  I have printed off the new set of rotas and stuck it to my wall.  I have sent off a few emails on important or urgent topics... and realised the enormity of the task that lies ahead this year.  Much of it excites and interests me, but it is all demanding stuff, and not everything that is good can be accomplished, there are just not enough hours or people.  So priorities have to be identified... do I just carry on working through the 'to do' list that arose out of a very helpful review of ministry last spring, or do I step back and ask bigger questions, identify key priorities and then choose a smaller number of things to which I devote my energy?  Spelled out like that, it seems crystal clear - the step back, big picture stuff is essential to identifying what the priorities are...; but then because it's my nature, I spot the interlinkages between, say, worship and mission, or pastoral care and strategy, and it all starts to crumble and jumble in my mind.

I suppose if I was a more holy minister, I would be saying that I would begin with a day (or a week or a month) of fasting and praying... except that fasting makes me grumpy (even if I could do with shedding a few pounds!) and I'm not quite sure what or how to pray that would suddenly clarify the complex reality of church life.  I suppose if I were better at the 'Language of Zion' I would be 'waiting upon the LORD' (which often seems to be code for procrstinating or doing nothing) rather than trying to do the meantime active waiting trusting that the LORD is in it somewhere.

So am I downhearted?  No!  I am actually quite energised by the challenge of keeping things ticking over whilst trying to think strategically.  I think I know what I need to do less of, it's just working out how to fit in what I do need to do that's the challenge!

Twelfth Night, the twelfth day of Christmas, whatever you choose to call it... is today.

Last night I packed away all my decorations and took down the cards.  I have to confess that much as I enjoy having them up, I enjoy even more the 'quieter' feel that emerges once I take then down again!

So, today we mark the moment when, according to Matthew, gentiles of a totally 'other' worldview encountered the Christ-child, paradigm-shiftingly significant for the readers of this gospel, even if essentially the fulfillment of ancient expectations.

I'm not about to waste any energy on historicity debates, they are adventures in missing the point whichever side of the argument people take.  Myth, mystery, marvel - all of these and more in a tale so ridiculous it makes Eastenders look plausible.  A tale richly embroidered through time, with, each addition reflecting some insight into the complex hermeneutic that is midrash (or at least that's how it seems to me today!)

Whatever you may be doing today, have a good day.  A Happy Christmas to any readers who follow the Orthodox calendar (and to any on other calendars, it's not long now!)

Whilst looking for images online I found this one, among many, I hope you enjoy it and find something to ponder in it:

... do not return home on Thursday evening and think you will have time to create a decent service between Friday and Sunday!  I have just wrestled into submission a sermon of sorts after several attempts... annoying I had some good ideas but they wouldn't flow when I tried to express them.

A way back when, I would have prepared this sermon before I went away, so that all I had to do was read it over, tweak and deliver.  Experience told me that didn't work very well, so I usually try not to preach the Sunday at the end of a week off... Christmas landing as it did, and wanting to see lots of family and friends, I forgot my own wisdom and came back to a blank 'sheet' of computer 'paper'.

Daftly I thought Epiphany would be one where I could get away with it... nope.  I then discovered that I seem not to have my best ever Epiphany service (title: To Epiphany and Beyond' preached 2003 (I know this cos I know where I preached it)) so I couldn't even pinch the prayers!

Thankfully I do trust that God's Sophia is active even in my very flawed endeavours, so we'll get there!

I had lovely week (or thereabouts) visiting family and friends, although to be honest the amount of driving was more than I feel up for these days... never less than fifty a day and typically a couple of hundred.  Now I am back home, have thrown on my old jeans and a tee-shirt, eaten porridge and am back to work - albeit working from home today as I have a gazillion emails on my laptop to work through.

Lots of good things to enjoy whilst I was away.  Highlights inlcuded one last birthday party organised by my Mum for close family, complete with a lovely cake decorated by my sister, and then a visit to Dibley which had echoes of Geraldine Granger as I tottered from coffee at house A to lunch at house B to tea at house C.

Really lovely to see so many friends and relations, really good to eat lovely food, fun to play games such as Hummbug and Scrabble at various homes... and lovely at the end of it to sleep in my own bed and be woken by my gorgeous pussy cat!  As the song says, it is so nice to go travelling, but it's so much nicer to come home!

Just the small matter of creating an Epiphany service ex nihilo now!!